Livongo Health acquires weight-management company Retrofit

Consumer digital health company, Livongo Health, has recently acquired weight-management and disease-prevention firm Retrofit. The acquisition gives Livongo the resources to more fully address the needs of employees at risk for and living with chronic health conditions.

Retrofit will now add its health plans and Fortune 1,000 employer clients to Livongo’s product portfolio and client base. Livongo also gains a proven, evidence-based, diabetes prevention program, enhancing its data science capabilities and expertise in holistic weight management including nutrition, exercise and mindset.

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“For our members, we now have more services that make it easier to prevent individuals from getting sick,” says Glen Tullman, Livongo’s CEO. “For our clients, we’re now addressing the comprehensive health challenges their employees face.”

The health services provider will combine its technology-driven contextual ‘nudges’ with an expanded nationwide team of health coaches. The latter will support members with a wide range of weight-management and nutrition services, such as personal coaching from registered dietitians, exercise physiologists and behavior coaches.

Seven-year-old Retrofit uses data insights and a proprietary lifestyle factor segmentation technique to support its coaches and tailor its offerings to each individuals’ unique needs.

The segmentation is based on 30-plus years of clinical research and has been used in clinical practice for more than a decade by nationally renowned obesity expert Dr. Robert Kushner. A professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and director of the Center for Lifestyle Medicine at Northwestern Medicine, Kushner is a member of Retrofit’s Scientific Advisory Board.

“This move will strengthen our ability to bring personalized outcomes to their clients and members,” says Mary Pigatti, CEO of Retrofit.

At the time of the acquisition, Livongo also announced it has raised an additional $105 million in capital. Retrofit’s 80 employees will join its team, bringing the company’s workforce to more than 300 people operating out of offices in Mountain View, Calif. and Chicago.

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